SOTD #121 // James Yuill: ‘First In Line (Lissvik Remix)’

Did we ever decide what to call the Swedish take on Balearic? Nu-Balearic? Archipelagan Balearic? All I know is that there’s something about that lazy guitar, those jagged-but-soft synth slashes and rising strings that makes the hair on my neck lean towards Scandinavia and a lump appear in my throat. Surely a music with such an impact deserves a befitting name?

Late last week, I was similarly disarmed for a moment or two when the latest remix from Gothenberg’s Dan Lissvik (he of Studio) dropped upon the web. The more astute and regular amongst you will know that Lissvik occupies a special place within the beating heart of The Line of Best Fit.

Anyway, here it’s London-based James Yuill from the Moshi Moshi stable getting the Lissvik makeover and it’s as splendid as one might expect from the man who took Fever Ray’s ‘When I Grow Up’ and owned it.

The masterful Swede’s touch slows everything down to a snails pace and yet – somehow – never manages to kill the song’s momentum. There’s his trademark littering of ambient, everyday sounds – a touch of birdsong painted on the backdrop, perhaps the vague reveal of a crashing wave and the promise of a Gothenberg summer if you listen hard enough between the hollow, reedy synths and clean guitar breaks.

It’s about as classically “archipelagan balearic” as you can get. Oops. I said it.